


The sunken ship that is of Mal and Jessie

by sometypeofusername



Category: UCLA - Fandom, USWNT - Fandom, jessie fleming - Fandom, mal pugh - Fandom, mallory pugh - Fandom
Genre: UCLA, USWNT, cawnt, jessie fleming - Freeform, mal pugh - Freeform, mallory pugh - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2020-09-29 21:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometypeofusername/pseuds/sometypeofusername
Summary: Mal is conflicted because she loves Dansby but starts feeling a certain way for the Canadian, who didn't take long to fall for the American.I'm trying to mix things up a bit but I have no idea where I'm going with this lmao.





	1. Chapter 1

Jessie had begun her second week at UCLA, only having really met her roommate, Teagan. She’s always had trouble socializing. Her academic and athletic scholarships had taken her to the United States where she had the pleasure of playing her favorite sport at the college level, although it didn’t take long for her to outshine her teammates. Despite this, she didn’t have a problem staying humble, as it was how she was raised to practice.

Her favorite place to study was, like everyone else, the library. It was quiet, people didn’t bother her, and she didn’t feel the pressure to make conversation with those around her. In fact, everyone appreciated keeping to themselves. It also helped that the library provided private study rooms.

While Jessie was studying at her usual pace, snacking on some banana bread, she felt eyes on her, she looked up to see a beautiful brunette at the table across from her. The girl averted her eyes as soon as Jessie’s caught her gaze, so Jessie shrugged it off. About 20ish minutes later, Jessie started to pack up her things to get ready for her evening practice.

As she was standing up to leave she was greeted by the girl from earlier, taking her by surprise.

“Hey, I’m sorry if this is weird,” the girl stated, “I think you’re really pretty and I’ve seen you around recently. Are you in Calculus-hybrid on Wednesday’s? The 12:15 class?”

“Uh, yeah, I am. Are you?” Jessie answered.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Oh, nice. Sorry I didn’t notice you before, I would have said hi.”

“No, it’s okay! Don’t feel bad. Honestly, I ignore most people I’m in classes with..you just caught my eye, I guess.” She said and Jessie smiled politely.

“Well, that’s really nice of you. Maybe I’ll see you around? Sorry to rush out of here, I’ve got soccer practice.”

“Oh, you play for the school?” She asked and Jessie nodded in reply. “That’s awesome. Before you leave, I’ll give you my phone number. Or maybe you can give me yours?”

“Okay? Sure.” Jessie complied and put her number in the girl's phone.

“I’m Maddie, by the way.”

“Jessie.”

———————

Jessie went about her day, getting home after practice and squeezing a shower in. Her phone buzzed to a text and she read it while brushing her teeth

_**Hey, it’s Maddie! Sorry if I’m texting too early**_.._**I hear you’re supposed to give it a few days but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ **_

Jessie went to reply.

**Haha**,** I think that might only apply to dates!**

Jessie was oblivious as to why this girl was so intrigued by her. For all she knew, Maddie was just trying to meet people- something Jessie should be doing as well.

_ **Who says I don’t want to ask you on a date?** _

**You want to ask me on a date?**

** _Why not?_ **

Jessie stared at her phone for a moment, not knowing how to answer this girl. She’s never had anyone be so forward with her before.

**I don’t think I’m into girls like that, but I’d be down to be friends!**

Good response.

** _Fair enough. Lunch tomorrow? Not a date._ **

**Sounds good to me!**

“You making friends? One step ahead of me.” Teagan joked, noticing how unusually-focused Jessie was on her phone.

“Uh, kind of. This is the first person to actually notice me,” Jessie replied, sitting criss-cross on her bed.

“Who is it?”

“Her name is Maddie? I don’t know a lot about her, but she wanted to take me on a date.”

“A date? Did you say yes?” She asked and Jessie shook her head.

“Nah, I’ve barely shown interest in boys-let alone another girl.”

“Oh cmon, have you ever kissed a girl? Look, it's no secret that I am gayer than shit, but I've still kissed my fair share of guys and girls are far better kissers,” Teagan paused, “maybe you wouldn’t hate it.”

“Yeah, I don’t know..still a stretch.”

“Suit yourself,” Teagan shrugged and went to shut her lamp off, both girls falling asleep shortly after.

__

The next morning went by smoothly; Jessie woke up at 7am, went to her morning class and studied before her 12:15 class with Maddie. They were going to grab lunch afterward, so Jessie brought a few extra bucks to spend.

“You ready?” Maddie asked, meeting Jessie at her table, who complied and followed her out.

“So, where are you from, Jessie?”

“I’m from London, Ontario.”

“Ohh, we have a Canadian in town,” she smirked, making Jessie blush. She was surprised that she didn't need to clarify which London it was.

“You do have a Canadian in town..so watch out,” she laughed.

“Well, I’m from Maine up on the east coast.”

“I’ve never been.”

“Well, you are new to America.”

“Correction- I’m new to the States.”

“Alright, fair point. Ok Canada, are you a party fan?” Maddie asked her.

“A party fan?”

“Yeah, like do you drink?”

“Oh,” Jessie got flustered, never been much of a drinker (even though she had been legal back home since she was 18.)

“You don’t have to lie if you don’t drink.”

“No, I have before, I just haven’t since I moved back here. I’m pretty bad at the whole ‘social mingling’ thing,” Jessie admitted.

“Me too. But there’s a party tonight...and tomorrow is Saturday...and you don’t have a game in the morning,” Maddie pushed.

“True..how did you know I don’t have a game tomorrow?” She asked and the other girl shrugged, smirking.

“I know everything,” she laughed, “the party is around 10 so I can pick you up and we’ll head there.”

__________________________________

Jessie stared at herself in the mirror, having no idea what to wear. She was never a very stylish person, leaning more towards sweats and t-shirts to do the trick. It was acceptable considering that her life was surrounded by soccer attire.

After a long stare-down with her reflection, Teagan walked in.

“What’re you doing?” She asked, setting her books down.

“I don’t know what to wear to this party.”

“Wow, Jessie Fleming is going to a party? Who paid you?” She winked and Jessie threw the paper towel roll at her.

“Maddie invited me, you should come too so I’m not alone and awkward.”

“I mean, I can’t say no to a party.”

“But you have to help me wear something.”

“What’s wrong with what you’re wearing now? You could sport the UCLA soccer team, nobody cares. I’ll wear my jersey too”

“Okay..that makes it a lot easier,” Jessie laughed.

..

The party was how you’d expect any college party to be: lots of underage drinking, fuckboys, beer pong, and way too crowded for Jessie’s comfort. She followed Maddie through the crowd, with Teagan behind her, and into the kitchen where the counters were dedicated to all-things-alcohol.

“What do you like?” Maddie asked, holding up three stacked red solo cups.

“I’m not sure, I’ve never really liked any hard liquor,” Jessie answered.

“We’ll do vodka cranberries, those are hard to hate,” Teagan answered for her. Maddie poured three vodka cranberries and they all cheersed.

Soon enough, Jessie found herself watching her friends playing a game of beer pong. She leaned against the wall and sipped on her second mixed drink, still being three behind the other girls.

“So are you third-wheeling or do you just enjoy observing?” Jessie was asked by a girl she didn’t even notice approach her.

“Doubles, actually,” Jessie smiled, “plus, I’m not a beer person.”

“What’re you drinking, then?” The girl asked, tipping Jessie’s cup down so she could see, “Juice?”

“It has vodka in it, and what did you say your name was?”

“Mallory-preferably Mal. We’re on the same soccer team...” She nudged, smiling, and Jessie’s cheeks reddened. She was embarrassed to have, yet again, gone without noticing someone.

“God, I’m sorry. I’m bad at this kind of stuff,” she started, “I’m Jessie.”

“Well, Jessie, care for a shot?” Mal asked, pointing towards the alcohol collection. Jessie would have normally said no, and in fact, she’s not completely sure why she didn’t say no.

She watched as Mallory poured vodka into two shot glasses, handing Jessie the matching UCLA one.

“Don’t I need a chaser?” Jessie asked.

“You could use your mixed drink, or I could pour you some cranberry juice- I was gonna do that for myself,” Mal offered.

Jessie looked down at her shot, and then at her mixed drink.

“I’ll just use this,” she decided. Again, something that she didn’t have an answer to back up her decision.

“Alright, so what’re we drinking to?” Mal asked holding her shot up.

“To...soccer?”

“To soccer!” Mal agreed and they clinked glasses, quickly swallowing it down. Jessie choked down the after taste with the rest her mixed drink, starting to feel a bit buzzed.

“Nasty,” Mal cringed, “I don’t know how people can do this so often.”

Jessie agreed and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Mal asked.

“I don’t know...sorry. Let’s do another.”

“Another shot? Suit yourself,” Mal laughed and poured another two shots, this time they went down easier and both girls found themselves a little less on-edge.

Their good time was interrupted by two young guys wearing Bruin baseball jerseys. They were cute but obnoxious, and it was clear that neither Jessie nor Mal wanted to deal with talking to them.

“You two look like you could use a drink,” one of them smiled, putting his arm up against the wall, right by Mal’s head.

“I think we’re okay, thanks though,” she declined, holding up her already-full solo cup (even though it was unspiked). The two boys looked at each other and back at the girls.

“What’s wrong? You dating?” He poked at them, spitefully.

“Would there be something wrong with it if we were?” Mal shot back, surprising Jessie, who was not in the right mind to do the defending.

“It’s hot, I’ll admit that. But it’s clear that you’re straight,” one said and Jessie rolled her eyes. Typical.

“Well, I’d much rather kiss another girl than to kiss either of you,” Mal shot back.

“Do it then.”

Jessie looked at Mallory with wide eyes, wondering what her next move would be. Mal searched for a trace of approval in the other girl, not knowing what to do either. Instead of being bold, she looked back at the guys and shook her head.

“You two do it first,” Mal proposed. The boys looked at each other, equally wanting to see the girls get it on.

“Not here, let's go upstairs,” the taller one said and led the girls into the upstairs restroom, a decently-sized one at that.

“Okay, give him a peck,” Jessie spoke and the boys gave each other a worried look.

“We aren’t gay.”

“We aren’t either.”

“This stays between us,” he said and the girls promised to keep it a secret.

It took a minute for the boys to work up the courage to do it, but they did, quickly backing away and dramatically wiping their mouths off.

“Okay, gross. Your turn."

Mal looked at Jessie nervously and Jessie almost felt bad for her. Granted, she’d never kissed a girl before either, but Mallory seemed a little more tentative about it.

“We don’t actually have to, it’s not like they can make us,” Jessie told her, getting a rise out of the boys.

“Um,” one started, “yes you do.”

“No, we don’t,” Mal objected.

“If you don’t then we’ll tell everyone you did anyway,” he replied.

“Yeah, and we’re captains of the basketball team with a perfect record here, two very honorable students,” the other added.

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it, I’m not nearly drunk enough to-“ Mal was interrupted by  
Jessie’s hand on hers.

“Let’s just get this over with and leave,” Jessie said. Mal hesitated but nodded in response, closing her eyes with hopes that the other girl would make the first move.

Jessie leaned in to press her lips against Mallory’s. It gave her the weirdest feeling in her stomach. Not butterflies, exactly, but more like that feeling you get when the airplane you’re on drops a few feet- just a tingly, unexpected feeling.

Mallory was slightly shocked by the kiss, not knowing what to do with her hands. Soon enough, she responded by gently moving her lips against the other girl’s. Mal was incredibly unsure of how she felt about this happening, or even why they got themselves into this predicament. She should’ve just left it alone and not challenged these boys, but for a reason that she couldn’t explain, she was feeling unusually brave and confident that night. Fortunately, Jessie did happen to make her feel safe.

Jessie was the first to pull away, letting go of Mal’s hand and anxiously biting her lip, as she was infamously known for doing.

“Let’s go,” she said and led them through the hall and back down to where her friends were playing pong. She didn’t understand how they hadn’t finished their game yet, although it could’ve been due to the fact that they were both pretty drunk.

“We’re gonna go, do you want to come with? Or you can call me when you’re ready and I’ll get you an uber,” Jessie offered Teagan and Maddie.

“I think we’re going to stay for a bit, but I’ll be sure to grab a lift home.”

“Okay, just call me if you need anything,” Jessie said.

“Who’s your friend?” Teagan asked, reaching her hand out to shake Mallory’s.

“This is Mallory-er, Mal. She’s on the soccer team too.”

“Mal Pugh,” she introduced herself to the two girls.

“I’m Teagan! You’ll see me at next practice, I’ve made the keeper position. This is Maddie-not cool enough to play soccer,” Teagan joked, making Maddie roll her eyes in response.

“Well, you two have fun!” Jessie said, wanting to get out of there before the boys came back downstairs.

—-

“Which hall are you in? I’ll walk you to your dorm,” Jessie offered.

“I really didn’t mean to put us in that situation, I feel like it could’ve been avoided to start with. I don’t know what came over me.” Mal avoided her original question, obviously having had this on her mind the whole ride back to campus.

“Hey, it’s all good.”

“I’ve never kissed a girl before.”

For some reason, that surprised Jessie. She thought Mal would have for sure kissed a girl through a dare..though Jessie hadn’t either.

“Was it bad?” Jessie asked her, earning a laugh from the girl.

“No, it was fine!” She smirked, “I wouldn’t make it a habit, but you were pretty good.”

This made Jessie blush, so she quickly bent down together tighten her laces in an attempt to hide it. Unfortunately, Mal still noticed but kept it to herself.

“So, are you gonna walk me to my dorm, or what?” Mal joked, pulling Jessie back up to her level.

“Oh, yeah. Let’s go.”

“Should we exchange phone numbers first? In case I lose you on the way..” Mallory joked and handed Jessie her phone to trade digits.

"That was one hell of a way to meet someone."


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna keep writing chapters until I get bored! Here's chapter 2.

Jessie got home and immediately crashed onto her bed, looking over at Teagan’s to see if she had gotten home yet. To her surprise, her bed was empty. She sent a text to her to check-in, making sure she was safe. It only took a few minutes for her roommate to happily reply, “I’m safe, spending the night at Maddie's.”

Jessie smirked, assuming what that meant, and gave in to her exhaustion, not even caring enough to take off her shoes. She wondered what Mal was thinking about right now if she regretted going to the party in the first place. The Canadian hoped that practice wouldn’t be awkward, especially considering how awkward she already was prone to be.

Jessie tossed and turned but couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Her mind was occupied with thoughts about what happened at the party. It seemed like a dream to her and she wondered what it would be like to kiss Mallory again. This thought scared her because she had never looked at another girl like this, never thought of another girl like this. She always had this curiosity about certain ones, though, having admired a few in ways she didn’t feel towards some of her platonic friendships. She just never thought to put a label on it.

She also knew how many of her fans assumed she was into girls based on the way she dressed, but she never failed to remember the stereotypes surrounding Canadian girls- let alone Canadian girls who also play soccer.

She checked the time on her phone, still not able to sleep, and groaned when it showed 3:15 am. How does time fly by so fast when you’re restless?

———-

Jessie was woken up at 10 by her alarm that she’d forgotten she‘d set.

“I don’t even remember falling asleep,” she thought. Nonetheless, Jessie threw her covers off and pulled herself out of bed.

The second she stood up, she had to sit right back down. There was a pounding in her head that she had never experienced before (which was unexpected considering she never got hangovers if she didn’t get sick while drinking). Must’ve been dehydrated.

Looking for a solution, she popped ibuprofen and filled up her 22oz water bottle, dedicated to finishing it within the next ten minutes.

Jessie decided that she would check in on Mal to see if she was feeling the backlash of the alcohol too.

**Hey! It's Jessie. How’re you feeling?**

Sent. Jessie didn’t really have much planned today except her need to catch up on homework (that she ditched last night to party). She gathered her books together and changed into some UCLA sweats and a t-shirt, taking her work to one of the private study rooms.

A little over an hour passed by and Jessie kept finding her self checking her phone for a response from Mal when she knew she should’ve been checking for a text from Teagan. Speaking of which, she should probably reach out.

**Hey, buddy, are you good?**

Just after sending her message to Teagan, she got a text back from Mallory.

** _I’m actually good! Just snoozed the alarm a few times lol. And you?_ **

Jessie smiled and set her phone back down, not wanting to seem too eager to text back.

She had to ask herself why she even cared, never really focusing too much on response time until now. She shook it off and kept doing her work, able to focus better now.

To her surprise, she got another text from the girl.

_ **Also, lunch?** _

This time Jessie didn’t hesitate to respond.

**I’m at the library, meet me here?**

She followed it up with an answer to mal’s original question.

**It was rough this morning but homework revived me**

_ **Canadians bounce back ;) I’ll be there in 20!!** _

Jessie waited for Mallory and sent an invitation to Teagan too, who arrived around the same time.

“Fleming!!” Teagan greeted the Canadian.

“What’s up, Teagan? How was last night?” Jessie asked with a smirk.

“Oh yeah, who was that girl you were with again?” Mal asked, sitting across from the other two.

“Her name’s Maddie, and it was fine,” Teagan laughed, “I thought she’d be down to smash but apparently she has her eyes on someone else...”

“Who?” Mallory asked and Jessie started blushing.

“She’s got the hots for this girl,” Teagan pointed, “she’s quite the bird but I guess she’s not Jessie’s type.”

“Ohhh, I see...” Mallory said, “because she’s a girl?”

That question had Jessie even more flustered, not even knowing how to answer it herself. She just shrugged in response and insisted that they change the subject, bringing up their soccer game tomorrow instead.

The two roommates bantered about their own national teams, comparing them to UCLA’s.

Meanwhile, Mal found herself lingering on the fact that Maddie was into Jessie. She felt a hint of jealousy but tried to shake it off. She was straight, that of which she had never questioned before. She never really had enough time for dating though, and it certainly was never made a priority.

She convinced herself that the only reason why she felt jealous was because people rarely ask her out, and she wondered what it’d be like to have that kind of affection.

“What about you, Mallory?” Teagan asked, snapping her out of her daze.

“What about me?”

“What’s your major?”

“Oh, um, undecided right now. I’m just getting my generals out of the way with hopes that I’ll figure it out.” She answered, slightly embarrassed.

She knew that the other girls had their minds made up on what they were studying. Jessie was majoring in engineering and Teagan was in psychology. Mal couldn’t make her mind up, she loved to learn in general- but her heart was all in the game.

“You have time, plus a lot of people end up changing their majors. Most people,” Jessie reassured her, making Mal feel a lot better about her situation.

“True,” Teagan agreed, “plus, you always have the NWSL to lean on.”

That was a fair point too.

—————————————-

A few months went by as Jessie grew closer to Mallory, continuing to find more and more things that she admired about the girl.

Mal, on the other hand, had found a love interest in the meantime-Dansby. He played shortstop for the Braves, and they were just about inseparable.

Jessie liked Dansby and she could tell how much he cared about Mal, despite the “don’t date an athlete because he’ll cheat on you,” stigma against it.

Although Jessie did like him, it started to hurt when they all would hang out together. She often wondered what it’d be like to hold her hand.

She started to accept her feelings for the other girl, having only told Teagan about it- and only because she basically pried it out of her.

“You stare at her a lot,” Teagan pointed out, “what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, nothing,” Jessie hid.

“Dude. You look at her like I look at women.”

“Okay? And?”

“Look, I’m sorry if I’m wrong, but you can tell me if you’re into her. I won’t say anything but it’s not going to do you any justice to hide,” she said.

Jessie sighed and caved, going off on how badly it hurt to watch the couple fall in love in front of her and realize how much she wished it could be her.

Jessie was never one to get sensitive about things and she definitely kept her tears to herself, but not in this case. Mallory pulled her heartstrings in a way that Jessie wasn’t used to.

She didn’t like it.

The Canadian began distancing herself from Mallory with hopes that her feelings would do the same. She stopped reaching out, stopped taking longer to take her cleats off after practice so she could walk with her. Jessie kept to herself and put all of her focus into her schoolwork.

It didn't take long for Mal noticed her sudden leave of absence.

“Hey, Jessie!” Mal called out, running to catch up to her after practice.

“Oh hey, sorry. I’m just in a hurry.”

“To do what?” Mal asked, not picking up on Jessie’s annoyance.

“Homework.”

“But it’s Friday?”

“Yeah, well I like to get ahead-“

Mal pulled Jessie’s arm to face her towards her.

“What's going on with you? Are you avoiding me?” She asked, genuinely concerned. Jessie shook her head, unable to make eye contact with the girl.

“Jessie...”

“I don’t want to talk about it- I can’t talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not important, really,” she tried to come up with an excuse, “just some family stuff.”

“I’m sorry. I’m here for you, you don’t need to distance yourself.”

Jessie smiled lightly, but she felt bad about lying to her. There was no way she could talk about it, though.

Not anytime soon.

“Hey, you wanna see something funny? Look at what Dansby showed me.”

Mal said, pulling out her phone. Jessie’s smile dropped at the name, but she quickly pulled herself together.

“What is it?” Jessie asked.

Mal handed Jessie her phone to look at.

“What is this?” Jessie asked, reading her name at the top of the...article?

“It’s a fanfiction!! Apparently, people ship us together, isn’t that funny?”

“Uh, what?” Jessie asked, wide-eyed.

“Yeah! They write stories about us. Kind of strange, to be honest,” Mal explained, “I’ve only read part of this one because it started to get really weird, but isn’t that funny?”

_Funny_. That word echoed in Jessie’s head.

She handed the phone back and laughed quietly.

“Pretty funny, pretty weird. I never thought I’d be written about in a fanfiction.”

“Me neither,” Mal said and nudged Jessie, jokingly winking, “but you know that means we’re famous now, right?”

“It’s a right of passage,” she went along with the joke.

Jessie missed her, and she missed Jessie.

————

“You going to the game’s afterparty?” Teagan asked Mal as they made their way to the soccer field, preparing to play against Stanford in a few hours.

“Yeah! Are you?” Mal responded cheerfully.

“Duh, I can't say no to a party,” the Australian winked, “but we have to find a way to convince Jessie to come.”

“She isn’t planning on it?”

“I think she just hates these things, she hates the games we always end up playing.”

“Such as...”

“You know: never have I ever, truth or drink, fear pong,” Teagan explained and Mal nodded in return.

“Ah, don’t we all?” She laughed, “I’ll try to get her to come.”

Mallory caught up with the Canadian and the two started a volley-match, trying to see how long they could keep the ball from touching the ground.

“So,” Mal started, “you gonna make an appearance at this party tonight?”

Jessie laughed and shook her head, receiving Mal’s ball and volleying it back to her.

“God no, I’d rather stay home. Besides, don’t you remember what happened at the last party?”

“What, you didn’t like kissing me?”

“Well, not like that!” Jessie said and saved herself, “I mean, not at all, obviously.”

Jessie’s slip-up flew right over her head.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” Mal dropped the ball and went to dig in her soccer bag, pulling out a quarter.

“Heads I win, tails you lose. Winner chooses whether or not you go to the party,” Mal suggested and Jessie agreed, not picking up on the common _heads I win, tails you lose_ trick.

Mal smirked and flipped the coin, exposing a head faced-up in her hand.

“Heads, I win! You come to the party,” Mal smirked and pulled Jessie into a hug.

“Man, I’ve just got the worst of luck with coin flips. I never win against anyone!!” She exclaimed, making Mallory laugh. She assumed that she wasn’t the only one who had pulled the trick on the Canadian.

“Okay, we can get ready at my dorm after the game!!” Mal exclaimed and they continued on with their warmups.

——

The game went well, both girls performed at their best and Mallory ended up scoring with an assist by Jessie. They were now named the “Dream Team” by the rest of their teammates.

Both girls liked the sound of that.

The girls made their way to Mal’s dorm and said goodbye to Teagan, who was going to Maddie’s to get ready. Jessie silently hoped that they would end up together so Maddie would stop hitting on her.

“What’re you wearing?” Mallory asked, coming back out of the bathroom after showering.

“Wow, what a fuckboy question,” Jessie joked and Mallory rolled her eyes, “Okay, Okay. I’m not sure. Probably a t-shirt?”

“Oh wow, a T-shirt huh? Really bold of you.”

“Can it!! I don't know how to fashion.”

“Why don’t you wear flannel? I think you look cute in a flannel,” she told Jessie, who’s heart fluttered when Mal said she was cute.

“All of the boys will be after you!!” She added, ending Jessie’s heart flutter.

“Oh, sure, but all of my flannels are back at my dorm.”

“Here, wear this one,” Mal pulled a dark red flannel out of her drawer, holding it up for Jessie to see- who surprisingly approved and put it on along with her UCLA soccer shorts.

"Might as well keep reppin’," she thought.

Jessie jumped in the shower and came out dressed, but walked in on Mal, who was faced away from the other girl to put on a bra and a white crop top.

Jessie furiously blushed when she noticed Mallory being comfortable enough to change in front of her. She did her best to make it look like she didn’t notice at all.

They both blowdried their hair and Mallory straightened hers to wear it down. Jessie wore hers up in her usual ponytail.

“Okay, you ready?” Mallory asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ll tell Teagan we’re on our way.”


	3. chapter 3

The party was a lot more intense than the girls expected, having walked into a complete mess of spilled beer and cheering girls. They expected it to be just the soccer community but there was a decent mix of all sports teams: women’s volleyball, basketball, even a few of the boys’ teams.

“This is not what I signed up for,” Jessie leaned into Mal’s ear, trying to talk over the music.

“Well, we’re here, might as well enjoy it! Let’s go get some drinks to ease your nerves,” Mallory suggested and held onto Jessie’s hand, pulling her into the direction of the kitchen by pushing through the crowd of people.

This was the first “Project X” type of party that either of them had gone to, and they were silently hoping it would be the last. They weren’t 21 yet and the last thing they needed was a MIC, especially with a soccer career ahead of them.

“How much are you planning on drinking?” Jessie asked, trying to decide whether or not she was going to get drunk tonight. The more she thought about it, the less of a good idea it seemed.

“I don’t know, maybe a few shots?”

“Okay, I’ll take one with you,” Jessie agreed. A shot or two couldn’t hurt, especially if Mallory would be on the same level.

The girls held up their tequila-filled shot glasses and made a toast to their freshman year, quickly downing the shots and holding down their disgust.

They followed it up with one more shot each and went to search for their friends.

“Mal, Jess! Over here!” They were called by the infamous Australian accent belonging to Teagan.

They made their way over to the keeper, greeting a few of their other teammates as well.

“We’re playing couples pong, you guys wanna join? Our game just ended,” Ashley Sanchez offered and they agreed.

Jessie had never been the best at drinking games, never really understanding why they needed to play a game in order to drink. The only reason why she agreed was that Mal was jumping on the idea.

“Speaking of couples,” Ashley started, “where’s Dansby? Isn’t he playing the Angels this weekend?”

Mal nodded, smiling.

“Yeah! He wanted to come tonight but I thought this was going to be exclusively our soccer team...”

“It’s not too late to invite him!”

Mal couldn’t argue with that and ended up sending an invite to the baseball star. This made Jessie’s stomach ache and in response, she decided that she was going to get drunk.

In fact, she was going to start now.

“Let’s shotgun,” Jessie said out of nowhere, raising the eyebrows of the girls around her.

“Fleming wants to shotgun? Really?” She heard Anika Rodriguez chip in.

“Yeah, why not?” Jessie asked, reaching into the Coors Banquet rack for a few beers, placing them on the table for whoever wanted to join. Teagan, Sanchez, and a few other girls pulled out their keys and cracked theirs open, waiting for the “ok” to go.

“Are you not doing it?” Anika asked Mal.

“No I think I’m okay, I’m gonna stay fairly sober until Dansby gets here. But I’ll watch!!”

This made Jessie roll her eyes and the girls tipped their heads to drink down their beers. After the few shots and that beer, Jessie was already feeling the effects of the alcohol, ready to play this game of pong.

The teams were pretty well-matched. Mal made her first and Jessie missed hers. Teagan and Sanchez made both of there’s and therefore had balls-back, only making one after that.

Jessie drank two of the cups that they were given and Mal drank the third. Mallory was beginning to notice how Jessie was starting to act a little off but left it alone.

Towards the middle of the game (Jessie/Mal had 3 cups left and Teagan/Sanchez had 4), Dansby arrived, coming up behind Mal and wrapping his arms around her waist. She turned around to greet him with a kiss, making the girls “awwww” in response.

Every girl except Jessie.

“You should celebrity shot this one,” Mal told him, putting her ball into his hand.

“Oh for sure, I’m the king of beer pong,” Dansby replied and proved himself by perfectly landing it into the front cup.

Mal responded by giving him another kiss in excitement, but this one went on longer than the first peck. Jessie couldn’t help but stare a little too long, quickly turning her focus back onto the game and listened as the couple giggled beside her.

For a reason she didn’t understand, Jessie could feel her eyes swell up, trying to blink her tears away. How could this girl affect Jessie so suddenly? It seemed like just a semester ago they were nearly strangers with Jessie forgetting her name- now her name was the only thing she could think about.

“You okay, Jessie?” Teagan pulled her from her thoughts. She nodded but Teagan failed to believe her, inviting her to go to the bathroom with her.

Immediately after locking the door behind them, Jessie’s head fell into her hands, letting out a sigh. She hated crying in front of people, but she felt a wave of comfort after her friend had pulled her into a tight hug.

“Youreally _do_ like Pugh,” Teagan started, having her own intuition connect the dots.

“What? No, I don’t,” Jessie denied, but eventually gave in once she saw the look of disbelief on her friend's face.

“Okay, maybe I do. I don’t know, I didn’t expect it to get to this point. I don’t even know how it happened.”

“I know, it’s okay,” she reassured the shorter girl, “look on the bright side...now you’re added onto the stereotype that all Canadians are gay.”

Jessie laughed at her friend’s joke, hitting her on the arm.

“I don’t know what I am, to be honest. I think guys are cute, I’ve just never been with either of them in a way that would help me figure it out.”

“Oh right, our sweet Canadian is still innocent, that’s okay! There’s no need to put a label on anything,” she started, “the only thing you need to address right now is that you have _very_ _real_ feelings for Mal.”

“And Mal is falling in love with Dansby,” Jessie said.

“How do you know?”

“Haven’t you seen them? They’re all over each other.”

“Yeah, but love and lust can be easily confused.”

“Wow, way to get deep on me, Micah!” Jessie laughed, receiving a push from the taller girl in response.

———————-

Meanwhile, Mal and Dansby had successfully caught up and beat Ashley and Anika, who subbed for Teagan in beer pong.

“Should we go get a few shots in celebration?” Dansby offered.

Mal smirked and guided him to the kitchen where the alcohol collection lived. Dansby began topping off a few shot glasses with bottom-shelf vodka.

“Did you see where Jessie went?” Mal asked, taking a look around the room and hoping to see Jessie's curls in the crowd of people.

“I thought she went to the bathroom with the keeper?” He replied after they took their shots.

“That seemed like awhile ago, but maybe that’s just the alcohol messing with my time perception,” she laughed but urged him to pour another.

After this last shot, Mallory decided to take a break from drinking. She was really starting to lose balance and didn’t like feeling out of control. Dansby kept noticing her look around the room and assumed she was searching for her friend.

“You wanna go look for her? Maybe she’s sick,” Dansby said, putting a hand on Mal’s shoulder.

She followed him throughout the house until they reached the bathroom, placing a soft knock on the door.

“Jessie? You in there?” She asked, but was turned down when she heard a guy’s voice on the other end.

She decided to call her friend instead, who picked up after the last ring.

“Hello?” Jessie answered with a raspy voice.

“Hey, did you leave?” Mal asked.

“Oh yes, I did,” Jessie slurred a bit, “I got a little overwhelmed. But it’s all good, Teagan and I are Ubering back to campus.”

“Oh okay, well I wish you’d have said bye...I was worried.”

The line went silent for a few moments so Mal followed up.

“But I’m glad you’re safe, I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Love you,” Mallory blurted. It was something she’d always said to her friends, but this was the first time she said it to Jessie.

“Love you too,” she let out a sigh of relief when Jessie said it back, afraid of having made it awkward. She hung the phone up and filled Dansby in on the conversation.

The two stayed and mingled for a bit longer but soon decided to leave as well, having lost interest in the dunk girls and the rowdy boys.

“I can take you home if you want,” Dansby said, opening the passenger door to his rental car for Mal. He was a heavyweight when it came to drinking, so the shots didn’t do much for him.

Mal felt a slight disappointment when he said that, silently hoping he would want to hang out longer.

“Or, you could come to my hotel room? I know it’s not very classy, but there’s...room service?” He asked as he sat in the driver's seat, shaking Mal out of her disappointment.

“Yeah, let’s do that!” Mal smiled, reaching over to grab his hand, who then ran his thumb over hers in response.

Mallory felt herself falling for Dansby, she had never been this close to a boy before and she was happy with where it was going.

The car ride to the hotel went well; the two of them talked about Mal’s options for a soccer career, and how she was offered an opportunity to train with the USWNT. She told him about how much she loved her friends at UCLA yet she somehow still felt like she was missing something.

“Maybe you should talk to your adviser? But at the same time, isn’t Jessie Fleming on the Canadian national team? She’s finishing school too, so you could do the same?”

“Yeah, true,” Mal replied, looking out the window at the cars passing by, “but she’s a lot smarter than me.”

“Says who?”

“I don’t know,” she looked back over at him, “she’s one of those people that you know is going to do well at anything she puts her heart into. I know that sounds cheesy...but I honestly think she’s one of the most intelligent people I know.”

“You’re a good friend, Mal,” Dansby smiled, squeezing her hand.

Dansby parked in front of his hotel and handed the keys to the valet, leading Mal to his room on the fifth floor. On their way down the hall, they passed one of his teammates.

“Swanson! What’s up, bro?” A guy wearing a Braves t-shirt greeted him with a hug, and turned to Mal, “Is this her?”

“This is my girlfriend, Mal,” Dansby introduced her, making her blush. He’d never called her that before, she didn’t know he considered her his girlfriend.

She stuck her hand out for a shake anyway and introduced herself.

“Mallory Pugh.”

“I’ve seen you play! You’re pretty damn talented, kid,” he smiled, “I’m Max Fried.”

They chatted for a few more minutes before parting and Mal followed Dansby into his room.

“Wow, classy,” Mal joked as she picked some of his baseball pants off of the floor, playfully tossing them at him.

“Hey,” he put his hands up in defense, “I never said I was perfect.”

“Well, I think you’re pretty close,” Mal laughed and put her arms around the taller boy’s neck, “sooo...girlfriend, huh?”

“You like that?” He smirked and kissed her forehead.

She nodded and kissed him back sweetly.

It didn’t take long for the kiss to heat up. As her left hand made its way down to settle against his chest, the other was still behind his neck. Dansby walked them to his bed and laid her down, careful not to break the kiss.

It was Mal who initiated for things to speed up, having reached up from underneath Dansby to begin unbuttoning his shirt, pulling it off of him, and breaking the kiss to pull off her own.

Dansby didn’t waste any time going back to kiss the forward, bending down to plant kisses on her neck and down to her collarbone. Everything was going by so quickly and soon enough the two were stripped of their clothes and underneath the bedsheets.

"I've never done this before," Mal said, letting out an uneven breath.

"We can wait," Dansby told her, leaving kisses down her neck.

"No, I want to," Mal reassured him, reaching for him under the covers.

The rest of the night went as expected and Mal found herself laying next to Dansby, who fell asleep fairly quickly with his arms wrapped around her.

Mal, on the other hand, had to pee extremely badly and did her best to slip out from under his hold to go to the restroom. 


	4. chapter 4

Jessie, once again, woke up to regret the night before. She regretted the tears, the beers…really just the whole nine yards.She wasn’t sure how the night ended, not exactly having blacked out, but just confusing bits and pieces that seemed to blend together.

Her mind immediately went to Mallory and Dansby, remembering the source of her demise from the night before. She was mad at herself for being mad at him, considering how genuine he was about his care for her. Jessie knew that if Mal couldn’t be with her then she should be with someone who could take care of her- and Dansby was that someone.

After some timely recovery spent laying in bed, Jessie pulled herself up to shower and prepare for her day. She met up with Teagan after she returned from her study hall in order to get lunch and talk about everything that went down.

“I think I have an idea for you to get over Pugh,” Teagan said, sitting down outside of a cafe after getting their coffees.

“What’s that?”

“You should hook up with someone."

“Oh please, like I have the game for that,” Jessie laughed, stirring her iced drink. When she noticed Teagan wasn’t joking, she shook her head, “who would even want to hook up with me?”

“Don’t discredit yourself, mate,” Teagan preached, “if you ever need a confidence boost- just google yourself! That’s what I do!”

Teagan winked and Jessie laughed. She had never been the type of person to enjoy looking herself up. It made her feel weird, and often times she felt guilty for being “self-assured.” This made her steer away from interviews and even social media, leading her to delete all of her accounts aside from her VSCO. 

“I think I’m okay,” Jessie started, “and this coffee tastes like chalk.”

“Well,” Teagan held up her hands in defense, “you’re the one who wanted to branch out to new cafes.”

“Fair enough.”

The two of them talked for a while, poking fun at each other’s accents and talking about the upcoming finals. Most pressingly- the upcoming World Cup.

“Were you invited back to national camp for this spring?” Teagan asked the Canadian.

“Not yet.”

“Me neither, but there’s still 4 months until it. I’m really hoping I make the national team this year, it would feel so incredible to win the World Cup,” the Australian smiled and leaned back into her chair, dreaming about the possibilities.

“Yeah, doubt it honestly,” Jessie blurted, then caught herself when she realized how shitty that sounded, “neither of our teams stands a chance against the US.”

“Did you see how they performed in the Olympics? You guys made them eat dust.”

“Bronze is okay.”

“Better than losing at the round of 16!” Teagan assured Jessie, who smiled politely.

“Are you okay?” Teagan continued.

“Better than last night,” Jessie answered genuinely, “honestly, maybe you’re right. Maddie is a really pretty girl, maybe I should just put myself out there more.”

“You should text her!! You should text her right now.”

“What do I even say?”

“Here, I’ll type it out and if you like it then you can send it,” Teagan proposed and put her hand out for Jessie’s phone, who agreed.

“Hey, Maddie,” she read aloud as she typed, “I’ve been thinking about it and I want to give a date a chance. I’m just new to this ‘dating girls’ thing so I wasn’t sure if I’d be ready for it.”

Jessie looked at the message for a few minutes, too afraid to send it.

“You send it for me, I can’t do it,” Jessie said and Teagan happily took the phone back and pressed send.

“What if I lead her on?” Jessie followed up.

“Just be honest with her upfront,” Teagan shrugged, “what’s the worst that can happen?”

It didn’t take long for Maddie to respond, being it that she had been interested in Jessie since they’d met nearly 5 months ago. The two hadn’t really had much of a chance to hang out alone, considering that most of Jessie’s time was consumed by school, soccer, and only truly hanging out with her teammates.

** _I would love to! Are you free tonight?_ **

Jessie responded quickly as well.

**After practice, around 7?**

** _Perfect. I’ll see you then :)_ **

“There, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Teagan smirked and Jessie responded by throwing her straw wrapper at her.

———

Meanwhile, Mal had woken up and jumped in the shower, making sure to double-check for any hickeys, knowing that she and Dansby both had to be careful with those due to their public careers.

“Mal? You in there?” She heard her boyfriend ask through the door, making her laugh.

“Nope, it’s your cleaning lady! Just needed to borrow your shower!” Mal said sarcastically.

“Ohhh you’re sooo funny,” Dansby said through the now-cracked door, “can I come in? I need to brush my teeth before practice.”

“Sure, you want to get in with me?” Mallory joked once he was in the bathroom with her.

“Tempting..but I’m already running late, and that’d add an extra hour for me,” Dansby winked at her through the mirror, making her blush.

“I’m sad that you leave tomorrow,” she said glumly as she shut the water off, reaching her arm out of the curtain to grab a towel.

“I know, but I’ll be back for you. Plus, you’ve got a World Cup to train for,” he smiled. Mal wasn’t sure how she found such a charming boy, or what she did to deserve him.

“Speaking of World Cup..have you checked up on Ms. Canada?” Dansby followed up, making room for Mal to come use the mirror.

“Not yet, I’ll text her. I’m still not sure what had her so upset last night?” She spoke while moisturizing her face.

“Maybe she just drank too much?”

“Maybe,” Mal responded, reaching for her phone that was plugged in next to the sink.

**Hey, you get home okay?**

She sent. 

“I have the strangest feeling that she’s mad at me,” Mal confessed, arising confusion from the Braves player.

“Why would she be mad at you?”

“I _did_ kind of ditch her last night, I was just excited to see you,” she said.

“She was the one to run off with Teagan, though.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true-“ Mal was interrupted by her phone buzzing on the counter.

** _I did, did you?_ **

“See? She’s not mad, probably just an off night for her,” Dansby said, putting his hand on her shoulder, “I’m gonna go get dressed too and then I can drop you off at your first class.”

“Okay,” Mal responded, typing another message to follow up with Jessie.

**Yeah! I just ended up staying over with Dansby. I have important news to tell you!! Wanna meet up after practice?**

** _I can’t tonight, I have a date with Maddie!_ **

Mallory stared at her phone for a moment, taking in that message. She was under the impression that Jessie wasn’t into Maddie and something inside of her didn’t agree with it.

Nonetheless, she was happy for her.

**Oh wow, finally agreed to a date with the hot girl? ;)**

** _Decided to stop being so closed-minded! It seems like everyone has someone except me._ **

Mallory felt a little sting in her chest when she read that; she didn’t understand what Jessie couldn’t see in herself. She’s such a wonderfully talented, intelligent, beautiful girl, who is so admirably humble all at the same time. It was a mystery how Jessie could think any less of herself.

**Well, I’m happy for you. You deserve some lovin’! She should hang out with us again sometime. And tell me how tonight goes!!**

Mallory sent her last message to her friend and continued getting ready for the day.


	5. Chapter 5

Dansby dropped Mal off at her first class- American government- and the two exchanged a few goodbye kisses before parting.

What frustrated Mallory was how she couldn’t seem to focus on the lecture, having to keep shaking herself out of her own thoughts. The only thing was, she wasn’t thinking about her boyfriend as much as she was actually thinking of Jessie.

Why? She didn’t know.

She thought about how she and Maddie were going out that night, and how strange it was to think of them as a couple. She never thought of Jessie as being a very affectionate person, but she wondered what that would look like.

Would she buy her flowers? Hold her hand? Take her on sweet dinner dates?

“Mallory...” her desk mate elbowed her out of her thoughts.

“Huh? What’s up?” She whispered back, not wanting the professor to notice.

“Look at this,” he passed her his phone to show her, who’s eyes widened at what the screen displayed.

“What is this?” She asked.

“People are writing stories about you and Jessie Fleming.”

“How did you find this?”

“A buddy of mine sent it to me, apparently it’s been going around campus...shit gets weird. They write about you two dating and shit,” he explained and Mal scrolled down the story.

She knew about that one fanfiction written about her and Jessie, but she had no idea that it was common enough to have MULTIPLE written. The fact that other students were getting ahold of these too was something that Mallory never thought would happen.

“I already knew about this.”

“Soooo, you into Jessie then?” He smirked. 

“No, I’m dating Dansby Swanson,” she responded before adding, “and I’m straight.”

But she wasn’t sure how true that last part was if she was being honest with herself. Sexuality was something that her family had always avoided talking about; it wasn’t that they were necessarily against same-sex love, but they never felt inclined to bring it up.

Mallory, on the other hand, wished they had talked about it more. It seemed like sexuality wasn’t something that was a topic in school, and she didn’t know a lot of gay people in Highlands Ranch.

She was slightly curious though about girls, not necessarily in a sexual way, but just wondered what made them so beautiful. Maybe that's why she had such a strong tie to Jessie- because she was the first girl that she had actually become curious about.

“I’m just playin’,” the boy assured her, once again interrupting her thoughts, and they went back to listening to the lecture.

At this point, now Mallory _really_ could only think about Jessie.

“People ship us together?” She thought to herself. She decided that it might be a good idea to bring it up with Jessie- or maybe the Canadian already knew about this.

She wondered what Jessie’s reaction would be.

**I really need to talk to you about something, do you have time before practice?**

She sent.

The rest of the class seemed to last ages and she already knew that she would have to find the lecture PowerPoint on her professor’s page because of how distracted she was.

She assumed that Jessie was still in class because of the lack of a reply from the girl, but her wait was short-lived when she received a response as her own class came to an end.

** _I just got out of class if you want to meet at our regular coffee place?_ **

Mal was quick to agree and made her way down to meet with Jessie, only a few blocks from campus, who was already at the front of the line to order a coffee for herself. Once she noticed the American, she smiled and motioned to a table outside to initiate saving it.

Mallory grabbed an iced tea and sat down across from her friend, who was already smiling back at her.

“What’s got you so cheery?” Mal asked her, smiling back. “Excited about your date?”

“A bit nervous, honestly.”

“How come?”

“I just think Maddie is a bit out of my league, don’t you think?” Jessie asked her.

“Are you crazy? Maddie’s cute, but you’re a lot cuter,” she replied, making Jessie blush.

“Thanks.”

“Hey, what made you realize you were into girls?” Mallory followed up, and Jessie shrugged.

The Canadian wanted to tell her that _she _was the reason she realized she like girls.

Instead, she claimed that she wasn’t sure. Mal believed her but wasn’t ready to drop the subject, knowing the reason she wanted to meet up in the first place.

“So...this boy in my class showed me something today,” Mallory started but hesitated to continue.

“Okay...” Jessie laughed and urged her to elaborate.

Mal decided to skip the explanation and to just show her the story from her phone, having looked it up after class. She handed Jessie the phone to read.

“Uhh, I thought we already knew about this story?” Was her response, but kept reading.

“Well, we did, but this is a different one. Apparently, pairing us together isn’t an uncommon thing,” she paused, “and also apparently everyone else except us knew about it.”

“What do you mean everyone?”

“The guy said that his friend showed him, and word around campus was that there was a reason why these stories got out so quick,” Mal chewed on her straw nervously, hoping she would get a better response from the other girl.

“Why do people care so much?”

“I don’t know."

Jessie handed the phone back to Mal and sat back in her chair, thinking about how to respond to this in a way that wouldn’t expose her feelings.

“I wonder if Maddie has seen these,” Jessie thought aloud.

Mal’s chest sunk at that sentence, she didn’t have an explanation for her body's reaction either. She was never a hateful person and usually got along with everyone, but something about Maddie didn’t settle right with her.

“I guess,” Mal said without thinking, but Jessie responded too quickly for her to correct herself.

“You guess what?”

“I don’t think it’d matter if she did though, right? I mean, if she likes you- which she does- then it shouldn’t bother her too much.”

Good save.

“True,” Jessie switched subjects, “what should I wear?”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Canada, you rock a flannel,” Mallory replied and Jessie tried to hide her smirk by sipping out of her straw.

“Flannel it is.”


	6. Chapter 6

Dansby dropped Mal off at her first class- American government- and the two exchanged a few goodbye kisses before parting.

What frustrated Mallory the most was how she couldn’t seem to focus on t lecture, having to keep shaking herself out of her own thoughts. The only thing was, she wasn’t thinking about her boyfriend as much as she was actually thinking of Jessie. Why? She didn’t know.he

She thought about how she and Maddie were going out that night, and how strange it was to think of them as a couple. She never thought of Jessie as being a very affectionate person, but she wondered what that would look like.

Would she buy her flowers? Hold her hand? Take her on sweet dinner dates?

“Mallory..” her desk mate elbowed her out of her thoughts.

“Huh? What’s up?” She whispered back, not wanting the professor to notice.

“Look at this,” he passed her his phone to show her, who’s eyes widened at what the screen displayed.

“What is this?” She asked.

“People are writing stories about you and Jessie Fleming.”

“How did you find this?”

“A buddy of mine sent it to me, apparently it’s been going around campus..shit gets weird. They write about you two dating and shit,” he explained and Mal scrolled down the story.

She knew about that one fanfiction written about her and Jessie, but she had no idea that it was common enough to have MULTIPLE written. The fact that other students were getting ahold of these too was something that Mallory never thought would happen.

“I already knew about this.”

“Soooo, you into Jessie then?” He smirked.

“No, I’m dating Dansby Swanson,” she responded before adding, “and I’m straight.”

But she wasn’t sure how true that last part was if she was being honest with herself. Sexuality was something that her family had always avoided talking about- it wasn’t that they were necessarily against same-sex love, but they never felt inclined to bring it up.

Mallory, on the other hand, wished they had talked about it more. It seemed like sexuality wasn’t something that was a topic in school, and she didn’t know a lot of gay people in Highlands Ranch.

She was slightly curious though about girls, not necessarily in a sexual way, but just wondered what made them so beautiful.

“I’m just playin’,” the boy assured her, once again interrupting her thoughts, and they went back to listening to the lecture.

At this point, now Mallory _really_ could only think about Jessie.

“People ship us together?” She thought to herself. She decided that it might be a good idea to bring it up with Jessie- or maybe the Canadian already knew about this.

She wondered what Jessie’s reaction would be.

**I really need to talk to you about something, do you have time before practice?**

She sent.

The rest of the class seemed to last ages, and she already knew that she would have to find the lecture PowerPoint on her professor’s page because of how distracted she was.

She assumed that Jessie was still in class because of the lack of a reply from the girl, but her wait was shorter-lived when she received a response as her class came to an end.

** _I just got out of class if you want to meet at our regular coffee place?_ **

Mal was quick to agree and made her way down to meet with Jessie, only a few blocks from campus, who was already at the front of the line to order a coffee for herself. Once she noticed the American, she smiled and motioned to a table outside to initiate saving it.

Mallory grabbed an iced tea and sat down across from her friend, who was already smiling back at her.

“What’s got you so cheery?” Mal asked her, smiling back, “excited about your date?”

“A bit nervous, honestly.”

“How come?”

“I just think Maddie is a bit out of my league, don’t you think?” Jessie asked her.

“Are you crazy? Maddie’s cute, but you’re cuter,” she replied, making Jessie blush.

“Thanks.”

“What made you realize you were into girls?” Mallory followed up, and Jessie shrugged.

The Canadian wanted to tell her that _she _was the reason she realized she like girls.

Instead, she claimed that she wasn’t sure. Mal believed her but wasn’t ready to drop the subject, knowing the reason she wanted to meet up in the first place.

“So...this boy in my class showed me something today,” Mallory started but hesitated to continue.

“Okay...” Jessie laughed and urged her to elaborate.

Mal decided to skip the explanation and to just show her the story from her phone, having looked it up after class. She handed Jessie the phone to read.

“Uhh, I thought we already knew about this story?” Was her response, but kept reading.

“Well, we did, but this is a different one. Apparently, pairing us together isn’t an uncommon thing,” she paused, “and also apparently everyone else except us knew about it.”

“What do you mean everyone?”

“The guy said that his friend showed him, and word around campus was that these stories got out pretty quick,” Mal chewed on her straw nervously, hoping she would get a better response from the other girl.

“Why do people care so much?”

“I don’t know.”

Jessie handed the phone back to Mal and sat back in her chair, thinking about how to respond to this in a way that wouldn’t expose her feelings.

“I wonder if Maddie has seen these,” Jessie thought aloud.

Mal’s chest sunk at that sentence, she didn’t have an explanation for it either. She was never a very hateful person and usually got along with everyone, but something about Maddie didn’t settle right with her.

“I guess,” Mal said without thinking, but Jessie responded too quickly for her to correct herself.

“You guess what?”

“I don’t think it’d matter if she did though, right? I mean, if she likes you- which she does- then it shouldn’t bother her too much.”

Good save.

“True,” Jessie paused, “what should I wear?”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Canada, you rock a flannel,” Mallory replied and Jessie tried to hide her smirk by sipping out of her straw.

“Flannel it is.”

\-----------------------

“Sorry, I would’ve picked you up if I had a car!” Maddie laughed as she greeted the Canadian at the entrance of a local Italian restaurant. Jessie smiled and went for a hug, something that she usually found a hard time doing without being awkward. This time, she took what Mallory said into consideration- _if she likes you, then it shouldn’t bother her too much._

“You look cute,” she told the Canadian, receiving flustered cheeks as the result.

“Thanks, I feel underdressed,” Jessie admitted. She thought that her navy flannel and ripped boyfriend jeans looked pretty raggedy next to Maddie’s cardigan sweater.

Until now, Jessie had never really allowed herself to notice Maddie’s beauty; she had long, dirty blonde hair and dark green eyes. She was only an inch or so taller than Jessie, but in a way, Jessie liked being the smaller one. She knew that she appeared to be the more “masculine” one of the two of them, but that didn’t mean that Jessie always enjoyed having to be the masculine one. She liked the idea of having someone protect her rather than to be protective- though she would jump on any chance to protect Mal.

There she goes, thinking about Mallory again.

“I think the flannel looks good on you,” Maddie complimented, “you could wear your soccer uniform for all I’d care, I’m just happy you finally agreed to go out with me!”

This made Jessie’s heart flutter and her cheeks redden. She’d never been told anything like that before and it was something that she thought would take forever to find.

“Well, I’m sorry it took me so long,” Jessie smiled lightly before the two were seated at a corner booth. They both ordered waters, Jessie’s with a lemon.

“So, do you like being famous?” Maddie asked, taking the Canadian by surprise.

“Famous? I’m not famous,” she laughed in response.

“Sure you are, people love you, you’re like, the face of Canada.”

“No way, that’d be Sinclair, and isn’t Justin Bieber the face of Canada?” Jessie asked, receiving a shrug from the other girl.

“Either way, you’re the only thing people can talk about with soccer...I don’t even play soccer and I knew who you were the second I saw you.”

Jessie felt a little uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, mostly because she hated being the center of the conversation, but also because she didn’t want to be known just for playing soccer. She wanted Maddie to like her for reasons outside of the notoriety she’s earned.

“Well, what about you? What’s your major?” She asked in order to change the subject.

“Environmental studies.”

“That’s pretty cool, what do you want to do with your degree?”

Maddie began to describe her 5-year plan after graduating. She wanted to do something beneficial for the planet and Jessie admired that. She also admired how Maddie didn’t check her phone once during their date, that was something that Jessie had formed a pet peeve for once smartphones became so significant. It wasn’t like she didn’t use hers, but it never got in the way of her face-to-face interactions.

“This was fun,” Maddie told Jessie as they walked out of the restaurant, ready to part ways.

“Yeah, thanks for buying me dinner. I’ll get the next one,” Jessie replied, irking a smirk from the other girl.

“Next time, huh?” Maddie laughed and Jessie blushed and nodded.

There was an awkward silence as both of them weren’t sure how to end the date, Jessie never was good at making these decisions. Luckily, Maddie did it for her.

The blonde girl quickly went to give the Canadian a kiss on the cheek, making her blush furiously. In an attempt to get Mallory out of the back of her mind, Jessie leaned up to lightly press her lips against the other girl’s, who didn’t hesitate to reciprocate the kiss.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds because Jessie didn’t want to draw any attention- sexuality wasn’t something that she felt comfortable addressing in interviews if they were caught. Not yet, at least.

“So, what’re you doing with the rest of your night?” Maddie asked her while they waited for their rides.

“Homework, mainly,” she answered, “what about you?”

“Not sure, might watch a movie if you want to join later.”

“As much as I’d like to, I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I’ll see you in class, though!” Jessie smiled and they went their separate ways.

——

The second Jessie got home, Teagan bombarded her with questions about the date.

“It was fineee we just had dinner and talked and nothing super significant happened,” Jessie said.

Teagan squinted her eyes at her in disbelief, making Jessie sigh to confess.

“Okay, fine. We kissed, are you happy?”

“I knew it!!” The Australian cheered, making Jessie throw a pillow at her in response.

“It’s not a big deal!”

“It IS a big deal, you can finally get your mind off of ‘America’s youngest forward,’ isn’t that good?”

Jessie grunted in response as she dug through her dresser for a t-shirt and sweatpants, itching to get out of the jeans she was wearing.

“A part of me doesn’t want to get my mind off of her, though. It’s weird, I have this weird feeling that..” Jessie trailed off because she realized how ridiculous she would sound if she said it aloud.

“That Pugh likes you too?” Her friend finished her though for her.

“I don’t know, maybe not to that extent. But I just have the feeling that maybe she doesn’t like Maddie?” Jessie answered, unbuttoning her flannel and replacing it with an old London, Ontario shirt.

“Ohhhh, so like a jealous thing?” Teagan asked and Jessie shrugged, pulling on her sweatpants and jumping onto her bed to sit criss-cross towards Teagan.

“Am I a loser for thinking she’d be jealous?”

“Nah, mate, you’re not a loser,” Teagan promised.

“Thanks,” she smiled politely, “plus, I guess the World Cup is coming up anyway so I’ll have a lot to distract myself.”

“And you won’t have to see her every day.”

“True.”

“Also,” Teagan started, “I have some news to tell you.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, on the topic of the World Cup-“

“You got the call??” Jessie interrupted excitedly, making the Australian laugh.

“Yeah!” She answered and received a congratulatory hug from Jessie.

“I’m so happy for you, Teagan, you deserve it.”

“Thanks, pal. I know you’ll get yours too- you’re a vet on the National team.”

“I just want to get on with it, camp starts in a few months before the friendliest with the tournament next spring. It feels so close.”

“It is so close! You’ll be ready though, I just want to see one of us kick the United States’ ass, no offense to our beloved American peers.”

“I hope we kick your ass,” Jessie smirked.

“You wish!”


	7. chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are people even reading this? I feel like it's pretty trash so idek if it's even interesting/worth continuing it

Mallory’s eyes scanned the same paragraph for the third time in a row, unable to focus hard enough to actually obtain any information from it. She grew to despise anything that had to do with Historical education. It wasn’t that she didn’t find any significance in learning it- because she did- it was just hard to stay interested in the names, dates, and locations of events that happened 100+ years ago. Nonetheless, she needed to pass the class with at least a B in order to continue playing for the Bruins. 

The girl groaned and shut the cover over her book, reaching for her phone from the corner of her dorm room desk. She quickly dialed Dansby and was happy to find that he picked up after only two rings.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?” He answered, his voice already soothing her nerves.

“Oh, you know, just reconsidering all of my educational decisions.”

“Hmm, seems pretty eventful. School kicking your ass?”

“Pretty much, I suck at history,” she sighed and he laughed.

“How does one _suck_ at history? You’ll be a part of it one day,” he said and Mallory could almost sense his smile through the phone.

“You never make history until you die, it seems-“ Mallory pauses when she heard a woman’s voice in the background.

“Is your mom in Atlanta?” She asked him.

“Nah, it’s just our team rep. We’re testing out some new kits,” he answered quickly, “my mom is off in Vegas trying to win her money back from last night.”

Mallory let out a sigh of relief. She knew she should trust him, but it was hard being it that they were so far apart for such a long time. Plus he’s a hot athlete, so girls were all over him.

“Oh good,” she laughed.

“So I heard you got the call from Jill?” Dansby asked, making her crinkle her eyebrows in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, shit...nevermind.”

“I’m getting a call? How’d you know that before I did??” She asked him, her excitement slipping through in her voice.

“Jill called your mom first I guess, oh god...I’m so sorry Mal, I thought you’d heard already!”

“No, I haven’t, but that’s so great! I’ve been waiting anxiously for it so I’m just happy to hear I made it,” Mal admitted gleefully, “I have to go. Let’s FaceTime tomorrow night?”

“Absolutely, goodnight babe. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you, Dansby,” she said lightly before wishing him goodnight.

Mal set her phone down and put her head in her hands, letting out a happy cheer that she had been holding in.

In godly timing, her phone went off- it was Jill Ellis.

“Hello?” Mal answered quickly.

“Mallory Pugh! I’ve been keeping an eye on your performance and I like what I see, we could use some young legs on the field. Will you represent the United States for the women’s World Cup next year?”

“Yes!! Yes, absolutely,” Mal told her with tears forming in her eyes, “thank you so much, I won’t let you down.”

“I’ll send an email out about the details. In the meantime, keep kicking ass, kid!” Jill advised and the young forward thanked her again before hanging up the phone.

She immediately let her tears fall as she smiled to herself, this might be the best she had ever felt.

She wondered how she was going to be able to keep her grades up while also joining the national team for camp. This was something that she had been talking to her parents about for a long time, considering the fact that she had been asked to sign with the NWSL once she turned 18. She was almost 20 now and it felt like this was something she should have put a pin in a long time ago, but she still wasn’t ready to address it quite yet. 

Mallory knew that she wanted to further her education- she’d earned admirable grades in high school and on top of that, not many people can say that they qualified for an athletic scholarship to an IVY league like UCLA. That being said, it was a lot of pressure to be surrounded by so many academic scholars and trying to keep up with her classmates as well as her teammates.

This was another thing that Mallory admired about Jessie; she was juggling the CANWNT, multiple athletic awards, and maintaining an impressive 4.0 GPA all at the same time. Mal, on the other hand, struggled to stay above a 3.5, which was the bare minimum requirement to play on any of the school’s athletic teams.

Now that she found out she made the World Cup roster, she was reconsidering the offer that the NWSL made her. She could either continue studying at UCLA, or she could sign a contract to play professionally with the National league- something that she’d been working toward since she was a kid.

She decided to let it go for now since she still needed to write a report on the last three chapters of this textbook- two of which she was behind on.

——-

“You’re so cute,” Maddie whispered as Jessie struggled to find the correct answer for a chemistry problem.

“This is torture,” Jessie mumbled and the other girl laughed softly, “You’re the environmental science major, why don’t you help me?”

“Because it’s endearing how you stick your tongue out when you concentrate.” 

Jessie glared at Maddie, who quickly gave into helping. 

“You need to balance both sides of the reactions...” she began explaining, taking Jessie’s pencil to redo her problem on scratch paper. Her left cheek was inches away from the Canadian’s, who’s were 3 shades pinker than the blondes. 

As soon as she finished explaining, she sat back to look at Jessie’s face, which had the same look of confusion planted on it. Maddie laughed and rolled her eyes before placing a hand onto Jessie’s cheek and leaning in for a kiss.

Jessie reciprocated hesitantly, moving her lips softly against the other pair and being the first to pull away so she could ask for another explanation of the problem.

“You can’t just take a 10-minute break to kiss me?” Maddie frowned in a joking manner.

Jessie closed her chemistry book and leaned toward Maddie, pressing her lips against hers.

She pulled away and smirked, “But if I fail this test, I blame you.”

Maddie quickly nodded and went back to kissing the Canadian. Both of the girls agreed to take things slow, but Maddie’s hand traveling down to Jessie’s thigh spoke otherwise. The Canadian allowed it at first, but when she felt the fingers start to move down and under her shorts, slowing creeping them up her thigh, she pulled away.

“I think we should slow down a bit,” she said while catching her breath, “I’m sorry, I’m just not good at this kind of stuff.”

“Okay, you’re right, I got carried away,” Maddie smiled apologetically, “I just really like you.”

Jessie smiled and planted a sweet kiss on Maddie’s cheek in response. She didn’t want to say it back because she wasn’t quite sure how honest that would be. She felt guilty about not being able to define her feelings, especially because of how open Maddie was about hers. She worried that the only reason why she couldn’t fall for Maddie was that her heart was already preoccupied with her feelings for Mallory- who was falling in love with the heartthrob of major league baseball.

“I have to go soon, my coach will kill me if I’m late to another practice,” Jessie said simply, packing up her school books.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Jessie smiled, “get home safe!”

And she was off to practice.

————

“Why don’t we hang out anymore?” Mal asked Jessie abruptly while they untied the laces to their cleats.

“What do you mean? I see you almost every day for practice,” Jessie laughed in return.

“No, I mean we don’t _hang out _anymore- like outside of soccer.”

“Oh.”

“You and Maddie have been getting pretty cozy,” Mallory pointed out, making Jessie purse her lips.

“Just friends,” she spoke.

“Friends, who make out all the time? If that’s what friendship is, then you and I are lacking.”

“Oh, so you want to make out with me too?” Jessie smirked, receiving an eye roll from the American.

“You know what I mean!”

“Okay, well, I don’t know what we are. We aren’t dating or anything-“

“Why not?”

“I don’t know I just-“

“Just what?” Mal interrupted again, arising a groan from the Canadian.

“I am a little too busy to be liking someone else.”

“Woah..” Mal paused, “someone _else_?”

Jessie’s eyes widened once she realized what she was insinuating.

“Not like someone else like I already like someone, but like, uh,” she paused and made eye contact with Teagan at the perfect moment, who came running over as if she could sense that Jessie was in trouble.

“What’s up, mates?” The Australian greeted them, followed by Ashley and Sunny.

“Mal! So, Dansby...tell me how big,” Sanchez put her hands together and slowly moved them apart until Mal swatted them away.

“He’d kill me!” She laughed, but then stuck her index fingers out with about 7 inches of space in between them- displaying how big Dansby’s dick was.

“Okay, damn! Baseball boys do got it goin’ on.”

Teagan gave Jessie a sympathetic look as the smaller girl was forced to hear about Mal’s sex life, although she had gotten pretty good at tuning it all out over the past few months of them dating. It also helps that he only visits a few times a month.

"Yeah," Mal answered, but paused before saying, "but I can't help but have a weird feeling..."

She trailed off.

"What do you mean?" Teagan asked.

"I don't know, last night we were talking on the phone and I heard a woman's voice in the background," she said but shook her head in reconsideration once she saw the concerned looks on her friend's faces.

"Actually, never mind. I'm probably just overthinking things."

"Well, did you mention it?" Jessie joined the conversation.

"Yeah, I asked him if his mom was in town."

"Was she?"

"She's in Las Vegas, but Dansby claimed it was one of their uniform reps."

Sanchez, Teagan, Sunny and Jessie all exchanged the same look of uncertainty. They knew that the baseball season was halfway through, and usually, they don't get new kits until the off-season ends. Jessie had the biggest suspicion of the three of them, right next to Mal's.


	8. Chapter 8

Jessie had the biggest suspicion of the three of them, right next to Mal's.

Jessie knew the risks of dating a professional athlete but didn’t expect anyone to ever cheat on a girl like Mallory. It fumed her, actually. Here she was, willing to do anything to keep her happy, and yet he’s willing to sleep with other women.

Granted, it wasn’t even confirmed that he was cheating- but still. Jessie was sure it was implied, but she still did _not_ want him to break Mal’s heart. She hoped it was just a hunch.

“You should tell him to come visit you. He should come to the girl’s senior night!! I know we won’t be the ones celebrating...but everyone's going anyway,” Sanchez offered.

“Isn’t tomorrow senior night?” Jessie asked.

“Well, yes...but he’s got money!! He could definitely afford to fly down.”

Mal laughed and rubbed the back of her neck, unsure of what she should do.

“I don’t know,” she started, “seems like a lot to ask of him.”

“You should just ask him, there’s no harm in it.”

“Maybe you’re right, plus it _has _been a few weeks since we’ve seen each other.”

“Yeah, see! I’m sure he’d be down,” Sanchez smirked, “and if you throw some sex into the picture......”

“Oh, shut up,” Mal said playfully, rolling her eyes before the girls all went their own ways.

Jessie walked with Teagan back to their dorm, having their building closest to the fields since they made honor roll this semester.

“You okay?” Teagan asked after 5 minutes into their walk home.

“Yeah,” Jessie shrugged in response, “there’s not much I can do about it.”

“Are you going to go to the party tomorrow? If you don’t want to, I’d understand. I’ll stay home with you.”

“No! No, it’s okay. I’m gonna stay home, but I’ll be fine,” she smiled reassuringly, “besides, I’ve got to finish my final draft for class on Monday.”

“It’s only Friday..” Teagan said, opening the door to their building and letting Jessie lead the way.

“I like to get ahead! What can I say?”

“Alright, alright, fair enough,” the Australian smiled and watched as her friend fumbled through her soccer bag for her key card. She grew frustrated when she couldn’t seem to find it.

“I got it,” Teagan told her, taking hers out and unlocking their door, both walking into their dorm and throwing their bags under their desks.

Jessie flopped down onto her bed and let out a long sigh.

“You going to hang out with Maddie tonight?” Teagan asked, untying her shoes and stripping off her long socks.

“I don’t think so, I’m so tired. It’s been the longest day, it feels like.”

“Yeah, same here. Maybe you should just watch a movie and take a break from social life.”

“That's the plan,” Jessie agreed.

————-

Meanwhile, Mal was laying on her bed, looking at her ceiling and pushing her cuticles down- it was a nervous habit she had inherited from her mother.

She began feeling emotional, although this was the positive side to having a dorm room to herself; nobody could see her cry.

The girl put her head in her hands as she laid there and let out a soft sob. After a few minutes, she collected herself and wiped the tears off of her cheeks. She felt embarrassed for breaking down like that, despite the fact that she was the only one to witness it. She was so good at holding a strong demeanor, that she forgot to embrace her emotions. Holding them all back only resulted in a larger breakdown once the emotions got too heavy to hold any longer.

Mallory sat up in her bed and slowly untied her cleats, tossing them across the room where the rest of her soccer gear laid. She sat still for a moment, just taking in some deep breaths, and stood up to start her shower.

She looked at herself in the mirror as her water ran beside her, beginning to fog up her reflection. Her mascara had left light trails under her eyes- not a significant amount, but enough to show she had been crying. As she undressed, her mind drifted back to her conversation with Dansby.

She groaned quietly.

“I’m just going to text him,” she decided and reached for her phone to send a message before she took her remaining top off and jumped in the shower.

It read:

**There’s a party tomorrow night for the seniors and I was hoping maybe you could make it? I know that’s a big thing to ask since you’re so far away. I miss you.** ****

Mal’s hands ran through her hair, shampoo bubbles made their way down to her feet and trailed into the drain. She heard her phone vibrate on the top of the toilet, and with her inability to wait until she got out of the shower, she reached for her towel to dry her hands off before picking her phone up to read his reply.

** _Lucky for you, I’m doing promo in Los Angeles on Monday. I was going to surprise you that morning, but I could talk my manager into letting me head down a few days early. I miss you too, babe._ ** ****

Mallory smiled and set her phone back down, determined to finish her shower without any more distractions- which, she ended up going through with.

Finally, she turned the water off and reached for her towel, followed by stepping out of the shower and wrapping the towel around her head to dry her hair.

She decided to respond to Dansby.

**You’re the best, I can’t wait to see you!!**

** _I can’t wait to see you either._ ** ****

The conversation ended there, while Mal passed out as soon as her head touched her pillow.

—————————

The start of the day went by pretty quickly for the young forward; she ate breakfast, scrimmaged with her teammates, and took an ice bath with a few of the girls. By the time she got back home, it was almost 7.

She texted Dansby to tell him that she was going to Teagan and Jessie’s to share an Uber, and for him to call her when he landed. She knew he had a later arrival time so they just planned on meeting at the party.

It took another few hours for Mallory to eat and finish getting ready but eventually met up at her friends’ around 9.

Mal knocked on the other girls’ dorm and was greeted by the friendly Australian, who was wearing dark jeans and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. Jessie was on her bed, surrounded by homework, with Maddie leaning over her shoulder.

Maddie smiled and waved at Mallory, who returned the gesture.

“You guys excited for tonight? Dansby is gonna be there!” Mal said enthusiastically but frowned when Jessie shook her head.

“Teagan is, but Maddie and I are just gonna stay here tonight.”

“What? Why?” She asked, taking a seat at Teagan’s desk.

“I’m tired and I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on. Besides, I never have good luck with parties.”

“Well, that’s because you go into them with that attitude,” Mal winked, earning a laugh from Maddie.

“It’ll still be fun, Dansby will be there to take care of you,” Jessie said, not taking her eyes off of her biochem book.

“Take care of me?” Mallory asked, slightly offended.

The Canadian finally glanced up at the forward, regretting it immediately once she realized how beautiful she looked in the short, spring dress she was wearing. Her eyes drifted down to Mal’s legs, which were crossed over each other while she sat.

“Hello?” Mal followed up, bringing Jessie back into reality. She was completely unaware of Jessie's gaze.

“I just meant like, if anything happens then he’ll be there. He’s your boyfriend.”

“I think I can take care of myself,” Mallory snapped. She wasn’t even sure why she was so upset.

“I’m sorry, Mal. I really didn’t mean to offend you,” Jessie said genuinely, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Okayyyy,” Teagan stepped in as discomfort filled the room, “we should head down there.”

“Have fun, guys,” Jessie said and made eye contact with Mal as she turned to close the door behind them, “be safe.”

“We will.”

———

Mallory and Teagan walked into the party with hopes that nobody would go overboard. The two girls took a few shots with their teammates and spent the next hour or so playing drinking games, introducing themselves to strangers, and -Mal specifically- respectfully rejecting a few guys that tried to get her number.

Teagan, on the other hand, had made it a goal to take a girl home with her, hoping that she could convince Jessie to stay at Maddie’s tonight.

“He hasn’t called me yet,” Mal leaned into Ashley Sanchez’s ear, trying to talk over the music.

“When was he scheduled to land?” She asked.

“An hour ago,” Mal replied, looking down at the time on her phone, “I’m gonna step outside to call him.”

Ashley nodded and handed Mal a shot to take before she left. She took it and made her way through the crowd of college students to get to the back sliding door.

The door had a sign on it saying _please stay inside, neighbors hate us._

She did it anyway, considering she wasn’t drunk yet or planning on being loud. She quickly found Dansby’s name in her recent call list and waited for an answer.

A woman answered.

“Hello?” She heard on the other line, Mal’s heart dropped and she felt the color drain from her face. When the voice repeated herself, she snapped out of it.

“Is Dansby there?” Mal asked, hands frozen in place. Not from the cold, but from worry and anger.

“He’s in the shower,” the woman answered, “but I can tell him his cousin called.”

“Cousin...” Mal spoke quietly. She hung up the phone and sat down in the grass, unable to read her own emotions.

Cousin?

That word kept bouncing in her head, and the alcohol kicking in didn’t help either. For some reason, though, she was unable to cry- it was like she was numb to her emotions.

After a few moments alone, she pulled herself back onto her feet and made her way back inside, immediately going for the alcohol selection.

“I need to get drunk,” she told Ashley, who was in the same spot that she left her in. This time, she was watching Teagan shotgun a white claw in the kitchen sink.

Sanchez didn’t bother asking why because she had a feeling that Mal didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, she poured the two of them shots.

Mal didn’t stop there, though. She went to join in a game of rage cage, which she was not very skilled at and ended up getting the “bitch cup”, which was full of beer and tequila.

Time went by in chunks and Mallory found herself locked in the upstairs bathroom, sitting over the toilet with her head in her hands. She hadn’t puked yet, but she wasn’t about to risk doing it in front of people.

“Hello? Anyone in there? I gotta pee real bad,” Mal heard from the other side of the door. She slid across the floor to unlock and open the door, surprised to see a guy about her height come in.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked her, pouring his drink into the sink and filling it back up with water.

Mal smiled when he handed her the cup and sipped on the water.

“I’m fine, just had..” she took in a breath to steady her mind, “just had too much to drink, I think.”

“Yeah, that’s okay, I’ve been there too,” he smiled and shut the door, “I’ll shut this so nobody sees you like this- you’re pretty well-known around here.”

“Thank you,” she said, leaning back into the cabinets with her knees touching her chest.

“I really do have to pee though..”

Mal put her hands over her eyes and he laughed, turning the faucet on so he could use the restroom.

He zipped up and washed his hands before joining the girl on the floor.

“I have a boyfriend, just so you know,” she said, and he laughed.

“Me too.”

“You’re,” hiccup, “you’re really nice.”

“I’m Simon,” he put his hand out for her to shake.

“Mal.”

“Do you have someone that can take you home?”

“My friends are all drinking,” she slurred and pulled her phone out, having it slip out of her hands and onto the floor. This triggered something unsettling inside of her and she quickly had to sit over the toilet to throw up.

Simon turned the faucet back on and rubbed her back.

“Who should I call for you?” He asked once she caught her breath.

“Jessie.”

“Fleming?”

“Yes, please.”

Simon reached for her phone and went to call Jessie’s contact, surprised to see that the girl didn’t have a passcode on her phone- which was rare nowadays. He admired that.

“Hey, is this Jessie?” Mal heard him say, slowly slipping in and out of consciousness. She didn’t remember when Jessie got there, but soon enough she was greeted by the Canadian joining the two of them in the bathroom.

“Thank you for calling me, you’re a good guy,” Jessie smiled and shook his hand.

“Thanks, you’re a good friend,” he said before going back to the party and closing the door behind him.

“What happened, Mal?” Jessie asked, sitting down next to her friend and pushing the strand of hair out of her face. In response to the question, Mal broke down.

Jessie wasn’t sure what to do, as she rarely had to deal with crying people- let alone _drunk _crying people. She wrapped her arms around her and felt her head rest in the crook of her neck.

“Is it Dansby?” Jessie whispered and felt a small nod on her shoulder from Mal.

“Here, let's get you some more water and I’ll get you out of here, okay?” Jessie asked and stood up to refill the solo cup, reaching down to hand it to Mal.

“Thank you for coming,” Mal said in between drinks, “maybe I really did need

to be taken care of.”

“I’ll always take care of you,” Jessie said without thinking, so she added, “that’s what friends are for.”

Mal drank the water and stood herself up, having Jessie’s hand under her and around her torso to keep her balanced.

“Hey, collect yourself, we will get through this,” Jessie said to her as she led the drunk girl down the hall, bypassing their peers.

Mal liked Jessie’s use of “we”.

_We will get through this_

For some reason, that sentence was more comforting than anything she’s heard all night. No surprise there, though. She felt safe with her.

Mal was only an inch or so shorter than Jessie, but she could feel the protectiveness from the other girl. Something about her hand holding her up was enough to make Mal’s head spin, which threw her off.

She was just drunk, was what she told herself.

Soon enough, Jessie was opening the back door of the Uber for Mal and sliding in to sit next to her.

“Seatbelt,” is all the Canadian said as she reached over to grab the belt and pull it across Mallory, clicking it in and moving to do her own. She smelt good, like freshly-washed hair, and the touch of her hand still lingered on Mal’s hip.

“How’s your night?” The driver asked, knowing how drunk the girl was in his back seat.

“Good,” Jessie answered, turning her attention to the driver, “and you don’t have to worry about her, she won’t get sick.”

“I’m glad you said that- it eases my nerves, believe it or not. I’ve seen some prettyyy drunk people in that same back seat.”

“No problem,” Jessie replied quietly, not wanting to ask for an elaboration on his comment. All she cared about was making sure Mal was healthy and safe.

The 15-minute drive took them back to campus and Jessie, once again, took Mal under her arm to stabilize her.

“Where’s Maddie?” Mal asked.

“She went back to her dorm,” Jessie answered, “and I‘m taking you back to yours.”

“Thank you, Jessie,” the American sighed as the two of them approached her dorm room.

“Where’s your key?”

“In my pocket.”

Jessie reached behind Mal to get the key out of her back pocket of her jeans, only to receive a quiet giggle from her friend.

“Jacket pocket,” Mal whispered into her ear, sending a chill down her spine. She immediately reddened and searched for it in the side pocket of her jacket.

Jessie unlocked the door and led Mal onto her bed, turning the light on as she did so. The Canadian stood up and was taken by surprise when the other girl grabbed her wrist.

“Please, stay.”

“I was just going to get you some water,” Jessie replied and stood up to fill a glass up with tap water.

“Thanks,” Mal smiled.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked.

“Dansby is cheating on me.”

Jessie’s heart aches at those words, knowing how much this hurt Mallory. Despite her vendetta against the baseball player, she hated to see Mal broken-hearted.

“I’m sorry, Mal. You deserve so much better.”

Mallory slowly nodded and placed her water on her bedside table.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked, and Jessie nodded.

“You really are _just _friends with Maddie?”

“Yeah, I already told you-“

“That you’re just friends that happen to make out every once in a while?” Mal finished for her, with a joking smile on her face. Jessie rolled her eyes in response, playing with the hem of her shirt, not taking her eyes off of it.

“I guess, if you want to put it that way..” Jessie smirked, looking back up at her friend.

Mallory didn’t say anything, just kind of sat there and looked at Jessie, taking the situation in. Jessie had stopped hanging out with a beautiful girl to pick her drunk ass up from a party that she didn’t even want to go to in the first place- that was pretty unbelievable.

“Then I’m behind, aren’t I?”

Jessie didn’t know what to say. She was afraid to say something wrong, or awkward like she’s grown so familiar with. She just laughed nervously and kept fidgeting with her hands in her lap.

Mal noticed and reached out to place her hand on top of the other girl’s to steady it, before leaning up close to Jessie’s ear once again, cheeks touching.

“Do I make you nervous?” She asked at an almost-whisper. Jessie swallowed as she felt her heart begin to race.

“Umm..” she started.

Mal pulled back slowly but kept a small amount of space between her and Jessie’s face. Jessie was frozen and unable to breathe.

Mallory took a shivery breath before she closed the gap between them, lightly pressing her lips against the midfielders. Jessie was a little shocked and hesitated before kissing her back, bringing a hand up to her cheek.

Mal convinced herself that this need to be closer to the girl was the result of the alcohol that had made a home in her system, despite her knowing that she became more and more-sober as the kiss continued.

Jessie’s lips were soft, and her hand had moved from her cheek, and instead found its way to the small of her back. Mal moved hers to Jessie’s thigh in response, sliding it up to rest on her hip. Her hand was hot against her bare skin.

Jessie let out a soft breath before gaining the strength to pull away.

“What’s wrong?” Mal asked quietly.

“You’re drunk.”

“I’m not _that _drunk.”

Jessie held her breath for a few seconds, looking at the girl in front of her. Mal’s cheeks were flushed, despite her tan skin, and she was nervously biting her lip. She was a little embarrassed, to say the least.

“I can’t,” Jessie said simply, taking Mal’s hand off of her hip and placing it back into her own lap.

“Do you not want to kiss me?”

“Yes, but..”

“Yes?”

“Well, no-“

“No-yes?”

Jessie groaned and pinched the rim of her nose in frustration.

“It’s not that I don’t want to kiss you, Mallory, I just don’t want to kiss you like this.”

“Like...”

“You’re drunk, I just had to pick you up from a party because you were throwing up in the bathroom.”

“Okay, but-“

“And before this, you were all over Dansby?”

“Who cheated on me.”

Mal was starting to grow irritated, and the alcohol certainly wasn’t helping. She knew that Jessie meant well and just didn’t want to take advantage of her intoxication, but every part of her wanted to kiss the Canadian again.

“I’m just saying if you wake up tomorrow and you still want to kiss me, then we can work something out,” Jessie stammered, “but I don’t want the alcohol to be your motivator, and I definitely don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Take advantage, how?” Mal smirked.

She reached for Jessie’s hand again and traced the lines on her palm. Jessie stayed quiet.

She lifted her hand up to where Jessie’s neck met her ear, playing with her baby hairs that softly curled against her fingers. Jessie instinctively leaned into her touch, failing to lower the temperature of her now-burning cheeks.

“Mal...”

“Just let me try one thing.”

Jessie stayed still, not wanting to give in, but also not wanting to tell her no.

Mal leaned in and shortly hovered over Jessie’s lips before moving to press them against her neck, right under where her hand had been. It was a soft kiss, but enough to make the midfielder let out a soft moan- barely audible, but it didn’t go unheard by the American.

“I figured you’d like that,” Mal smirked against her skin before planting one more kiss on it and pulling away.

Jessie couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening.

“Why are you just now wanting to kiss me like that?” Jessie asked her, receiving a shrug in response.

“I’ve thought about it before.”

“You have?”

“Well, sure,” she started, playing with a strand of her hair, “haven’t you?”

“Haven’t I...” Jessie spoke.

“Okay, think about it this way. People write these stories about us, right?”

“I guess.”

“I’ve read part of the one that Dansby showed me, and it made me wonder what’d it’d be like.”

When Jessie didn’t say anything, Mal continued.

“Come on, you know what I’m talking about.”

“But they’re just stories?”

“_Yes _but...” she trailed off, realizing that she might be the awkward one now.

“It’s okay, I get what you’re saying,” Jessie helped, “but I’m standing behind the fact that I can’t-“

Jessie was interrupted by her phone ringing in her pocket and she picked it up to see it was Teagan.

“Hey, Teagan,” she answered before mouthing, “I’m sorry” to Mal.

Jessie went out into the hall, shutting the door behind her.

“Now isn’t the best time,” Jessie said quietly, not wanting Mallory to hear.

“Oh, you with Maaadieeee?” Teagan teased.

“No, I’m at Mal’s dorm.”

“Oh, shit, plot twist!” Teagan laughed.

Jessie could tell she was drunk by the thickness of her accent.

“I’ll talk to you about it when I get back, I’ll probably be there in 15ish minutes.”

“Wait, could you stay there by any chance? I’m chatting up this girl…”

Jessie groaned, knowing what that meant.

“Fuck, okay, I’ll figure something out.”

“I owe you one, Fleming! I’ll wear a Canadian jersey to my classes tomorrow.”

“Your national team would kill you.”

“Only if you don’t! Love you, wish me luck!”

“Good luck, love you too.”

Jessie hung up first and took in a deep breath before going back into Mal’s dorm.

“Hey…can I stay here tonight?” Jessie said, looking at her feet.

Mal smirked.

“I thought you _didn’t _want to kiss me anymore_.”_

“Teagan is taking a girl home, so I’m booted for the night,” Jessie explained.

“You can stay here.”

“I can sleep on the floor?”

“You can sleep in my bed,” Mal offered.

Jessie blushed on instinct, earning a reassuring smile from Mal.

“Don’t worry, I won’t try anything,” she told the Canadian and moved over to the wall-side of her bed and patted beside her.

Jessie sighed and turned the light off, feeling her way over to the bed. She got underneath the covers and faced away from her friend.

“You know,” Mal whispered, “just because I’m drunk doesn’t mean I’m insincere.”

Jessie stayed quiet, but felt Mal shift in bed and move close to press herself against her back, putting an arm around her. Jessie didn’t stop her, but instead put her hand on top of hers, holding it in place.

The two fell asleep comfortably.


	9. chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it doesn't suck lol

Mal woke up in a painfully groggy state and it took a few extra minutes for her senses to come back to her. She rubbed her eyes and let out an irritated groan when the sunlight hit them.

The first thing that she remembered was having kissed Jessie.

She turned over with hopes that she’d find the girl sleeping next to her, but was only met with a pillow in her place.

“She’s always been a morning person,” she remembered, reaching for her phone.

_10:13am._

It was hard for Mal to take in _everything_ that happened because she would’ve liked to forget most of it. Hell, maybe she would’ve liked to forget _all_ of it.

Just not the part about kissing Jessie.

She had 2 missed calls from Dansby, and half a dozen texts. She unlocked her phone to read his messages but instead found herself going to open one from the Canadian.

** _Let me know when you’re up and going._ **

Mallory began to overanalyze the simplicity of the message. She was dreading having to address what came over her last night, mostly because she didn’t even know how to answer that herself. She knew that she wanted to kiss her- that part wasn’t a question. But what were her motives? The alcohol? Dansby?

Eventually, she had to bring herself to check the texts from him too.

** _Mallory, hear me out_ ** ****

** _This is all a misunderstanding._ ** ****

** _Please call me when you can_ ** ****

** _I don’t want to lose you, I’m desperate to talk to you_ ** ****

** _It’s not at all what you think._ ** ****

The other messages all sounded the same to her and she couldn’t bear reading any further. She decided that the only smart way to approach this was to wait until she was in the right mind to speak to him.

That didn’t mean that she shouldn’t give him her two-cents in the meantime though, just to give him a taste of how she’s feeling.

**We can talk, but you aren’t going to like what you’ll hear.** ****

She sent. Each letter that she typed filled with more and more anger, but was quickly replaced with tears. She collected herself enough to respond to Jessie:

**I’m up, but I’m certainly not going!** ****

She decided to follow it up,****

**Can you come over?** ****

Mal laid in bed for another 15 minutes, just stuck in her own thoughts. Finally, one of them replied- and not the baseball player.

** _I’ll be there soon_ ** ****

Mal smiled to herself and reached to the bedside table for her water, careful not to lift her head too much. It took everything she had to keep from spilling it, considering how shaky her hands turned out to be. She really needed to get some food in her.

Ten-fifteen minutes later, her attention was turned to her door opening and was greeted by the awkward Canadian. She clearly meant it when she said _soon_.

Jessie handed Mal a coffee that matched her own and helped her sit up in bed.

“You look terrible,” she spoke.

“Wow, thank you, just what I needed to hear,” Mal said sarcastically and sipped her hot coffee.

“Sorry, I’m trying to get better at this ‘comforting’ thing.”

“It’s okay, I guess I’m just feeling the aftermath of everything that happened last night.”

“You’re pretty hungover, I assume?” Jessie asked and Mal laughed.

“Yeah, but I’m not _only _recovering from the alcohol,” she hinted, “the entirety of last night’s events was enough to knock me off balance.”

Jessie blushed and held back a little smile, remembering how it felt to have finally kissed the girl she had grown so fond of. She wanted to relive that feeling.

“Have you spoken to Dansby?” She asked and Mallory shook her head, taking another drink.

“Nope, I agreed to meet with him but I haven’t heard back yet.”

Jessie asked her what he said, and the other girl responded by showing her the text messages. She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“That’s a lot of apologies,” was her immediate reaction.

“I just don’t know what he thinks is going to come out of us talking? He’s an idiot if he thinks I’m going to forgive him.”

“Might give you some peace of mind to hear his side of the story, though.”

“I guess so, I’m just worried that he’ll somehow find a way to reel me back in,” Mal was ashamed of that worry, but she also had to remind herself that she was still very much in love with the man.

Jessie felt something pull at her heart when she heard that and had to fight back a frown.

“Well, don’t go into it with that being a stressor, go with confidence and cross that bridge if you get there.”

The ability for Jessie to remain neutral with her advice (vocally, at least) was enough to gain even more respect from Mallory. She admired the genuine _care_ in the way the Canadian spoke, and it only proved how much she actually wanted to be there for her.

“So, not to change the subject,” Mal started, “but don’t think I forgot about kissing you.”

“I certainly didn’t forget,” Jessie responded, rubbing the back of her neck.

Mal loved when she’d get flustered, it somehow brought out the sensitive side to her that the world didn’t normally get to see. They all saw a quiet and introverted girl, while Mal saw someone who was caring, independent, and intensely brave.

“You’re cute when you get flustered.”

Jessie didn’t know how to respond, mostly because people didn’t usually give her this kind of attention. She decided to make a move and reach up to place a hand on her arm, moving her thumb against her skin. She hoped that this was something that normal and confident people would do.

Lucky for her, Mal reciprocated the touch by putting her hand on Jessie’s, not wanting her to stop what she was doing.

Their moment was interrupted by Mal’s phone buzzing in between them. She looked down to see a response from Dansby.

** _Are you free for a late lunch?_ ** ****

“Speak of the devil,” she said aloud, letting out a puff of air.

“You should do it,” Jessie advised and Mal nodded.

“I wish he weren’t so charming,” Mal mumbled.

She stood up to brush her teeth and Jessie followed, filling a cup up with water.

“You look funny,” she spoke as Mal brushed, “like you’ve got rabies.”

Mal rolled her eyes and spit, washing her mouth out with water before turning around to face her friend.

“And _you_,” she poked her chest, “are a child.”

“Hey,” she laughed, “I’m just trying to shine some light! You’d make a beautiful rabid person.”

“You know what? I think I just need to distract myself,” Mal admitted matter-a-factly, crossing her arms and leaning back against her sink.

“Distract yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“We can go do homework at the library if you want,” Jessie offered and Mallory smirked.

“You’re such a nerd,” she laughed and moved closer to the Canadian, “I was thinking more along the lines of this…”

She ran her thumb over the other girl's bottom lip, letting her fingers then trace the freckles on her cheek.

Jessie bit her lip, not knowing what to do. She had to remind herself that Mallory was in a very vulnerable state.

But suddenly Mal was kissing her, taking her by surprise. Jessie could taste the mint on her tongue.

She moved Jessie back into the wall, pressing against her harder. Her hands were hot on the midfielder’s skin, one of them pushing her shirt up and leaving a trail of goosebumps where it touched. The other was resting on her upper chest, keeping Jessie pinned. Neither one of the girls expected this kind of strength or assertiveness from her.

Jessie was completely overwhelmed as she lost full control of the situation. She let out a shaky sigh when Mal’s lips left her own to trail down her jaw and place kisses on her pulse- careful not to leave any marks. Jessie’s head was spinning, not knowing what to do with her own hands, or more so not knowing where Mallory’s were planning to go.

As if she read her mind, she felt Mal’s nails run down her stomach ever so lightly to meet with the waistband of her soccer shorts.

Jessie’s breath caught in her throat and she reached down to stop Mal’s hand from going any further. This wasn’t something she thought she would reject Mal from doing, but her conscience was prying at the truth.

“I don’t want to,” was what came out of her mouth.

Not at all the way she wanted to word it, and an absolutely 100% _untrue_ statement- but that’s what came out.

“You don’t?” Mal responded unbelievably, taking her lips off of Jessie’s neck. The two of them struggled to even out their breathing, both equally as flushed.

“You don’t actually want to make out with me,” Jessie insisted and shifted out from between Mal and the bathroom wall. She placed her hand underneath her shirt where Mal’s had just been, trying to convince her brain that she was doing the right thing.

Even though every other part of her was begging to pick up where they left off.

“Why would I make out with you if I didn’t want to?”

“Because you’re mad at Dansby.”

“I assure you that I’m not kissing you to get back at a boy.”

“You love him,” Jessie whispered.

“But he broke my heart,” Mal answered.

Jessie could tell that Mallory was being honest, and she wanted nothing more than to make her feel better. Nonetheless, she knew that she needed to wait to pursue other things.

“Mal,” Jessie began softly, “I need to make sure that you’re actually in the right mindset to be with anyone else right now.”

The American felt that same level of embarrassment that she did the previous night- this is now the _second_ time Jessie had turned her down. Clearly, she wasn’t interested. Right?

“You should meet with him,” the Canadian suggested, grabbing Mal’s phone from the counter and placing it into her hand.

Mal reread the message that Dansby had sent her before agreeing to respond.

**Meet me at the coffee bar in 30** ****

She sent.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel used.”

“I don’t feel used,” Jessie promised and pulled her into a hug, “I just want what’s best for you.”

—————-

“Okay, explain,” Mal demanded, sitting back in her chair with her arms crossed. Dansby was happy that she agreed to meet, but Mal wasn’t exactly keen on the idea.

“I‘ve been keeping something from you-“

“Rough start.”

“-But it’s not what you think,” Dansby continued, “I wasn’t lying about our uniform rep, she was the one who answered the phone.”

“And thought I was your cousin, right? That one?”

“She knew you weren’t my cousin.”

“I don’t understand how this makes you sound any better.”

“She‘s my ex-girlfriend, that’s the part that I’ve been keeping from you,” Dansby got off his chest.

He ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends; it was a nervous habit of his that Mal had picked up on overtime. She has always found it extremely endearing, so seeing him like this made everything _that_ much harder.

Nonetheless, she stayed silent, wanting him to elaborate.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry but clearly that made things worse and I am so, so sorry that I lied,” he apologized, voice cracking.

“I still don’t understand, Dansby. Why didn’t you show up to the party? Or call me back in general?” She asked with a stern voice. She didn’t want him to know how badly she hoped he was telling the truth.

“She was jealous and wanted to get in between us, so when I was in the bathroom getting ready I guess she decided that that’s what she was going to do. She told me that you called to cancel.”

“Oh,” was all Mal could say. Now she understood.

“I would never cheat on you, Mallory. I love you,” he promised her and reached out to grab her hands. “I told my coach that I needed someone else to work with me on promotional projects, so she will _not_ be a problem anymore.”

Mal managed to let out a sigh of relief and squeezed his hands in return. Her stress was lifted- that was until she remembered what happened between her and Jessie.

“I have to be honest with you too,” she started, hesitant to continue.

“Go for it. Anything.”

“I kissed Jessie.”

“Jessie Fleming?” He asked. She could sense irritation in his voice, as well as confusion.

“Yes, but it was only once.”

Lie.

“And it didn’t mean anything.”

Another lie.

“Well, did it mean something to her?” He asked.

Mal found herself unable to answer that question- it was something that she hadn’t considered until now. Did Jessie have feelings for her? Is that why she kept her distance with Maddie?

“I’m not sure,” she answered quietly, “I was drunk and I was angry with you and I guess I just let those feelings get the best of me.”

“I don’t blame you,” he replied calmly, “you thought I was cheating on you.”

Mal pursed her lips and thought about what she wanted to do about everything. If Dansby was telling the truth, then she could easily fall back into his arms.

There was only one thing stopping her from making that decision- Jessie.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The upside to shelter in place is that I have more time to be bored! So, more time to write this. 
> 
> I made a significant time jump but only to improve accuracy. Good luck!

Mal had just gotten into bed but couldn’t sleep with the room spinning around her and her mind following it. She’d never been _this_ drunk before- not even at the goodbye party that her UCLA friends threw her.

She sat up in bed and tried to collect herself- all she wanted was to sleep but if she remained in the same position for longer than 2 minutes, she’d get smacked with a wave of nausea.

“Fucking spins,” she cursed aloud. She knew that she had her own hotel room so realistically she could throw up without embarrassing herself, but that would mean that she’d be hungover in the morning.

Tomorrow is _not_ the day to be hungover.

Mal’s thoughts (and nausea) were interrupted by her phone buzzing on the nightstand.

Jessie Fleming.

“Jessie?” Mal answered. It had been months- closer to a year, actually- since they’ve spoken.

“Hey, Mal, I just wanted to congratulate you,” she heard the Canadian say on the other line.

“Thank you, that means a lot,” she paused to catch her breath, “I am shit-faced.”

Jessie laughed and Mal smiled at the sound of it.

“Oh, I bet. Worse than your goodbye party?”

“Way worse.”

“I have to be honest, that’s a little hard to believe considering the fact that you tried to join the ‘table breaking club’,” Jessie reminisced.

Mallory laughed, followed by a long groan.

“Don’t remind me! You were the one who did it first, you know,” she accused jokingly.

“I only did it to impress you.”

Jessie’s statement made Mal’s chest heat up and she suddenly remembered how warm it felt to talk to her. Those same feelings of nervousness and curiosity resurfaced- for the both of them.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that,” Jessie stammered.

“No, it’s okay!” Mal insisted, interrupting Jessie’s anxious mumbling.

Jessie was a loss for words, while Mallory’s intoxication couldn’t make sense of what she wanted to say. Still, neither girl wanted to hang up. They both held onto the hidden fear that if they did say goodbye, that they would go another year without speaking.

“So um, are you drinking water over there?” Jessie broke the silence. Awkward- but enough.

“Am I drinking water?”

“Yeah, are you?”

Mal was puzzled and didn’t understand what Jessie was asking. Of course, she was drinking water...she’d pass out from dehydration on the field if she wasn’t.

Jessie caught onto Mal’s confusion.

“I mean because...like...you’re drunk,” Jessie explained, “hence the hydration.”

Mal felt her cheeks heat up; she didn’t know the last time she felt herself blush like this, and over what?

“Right,” she laughed nervously, “I knew that! Sorry, booze-brain.”

“Booze-brain indeed.”

“I wish you were here.”

Jessie was the one taken back now.

“You do?”

“It’s been a weird year without you in it,” Mal paused before adding quietly, “why’d you push me away?”

Jessie frowned and laid back against her headboard. The truth was that she pushed Mallory away because she couldn’t bear the thought of watching Dansby doing everything she had wanted to do.

She was too afraid to say it before, but maybe now would be the best time to.

“I, um, I don’t know really.”

“Yes, you do. You ignored my texts, my calls,” Mal pushed, “I’m not mad I just want to know what I did- so I don’t do it again.”

“You kissed me, Mal,” Jessie said bluntly.

She figured that if the other girl truly wanted to know the answer, that it was time to give her the truth; to stop beating around the bush. Maybe the alcohol would smooth down the edges.

Mal understood and she remembered the two days spent with Jessie where her stomach was filled with butterflies and her heart longed for someone other than Dansby.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you, I was confused.”

“About what?”

“About you...I don’t know, really.”

Jessie didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say.

“I was so confident that I was straight and that I loved boys- that I loved Dansby,” Mal continued, “and I did! I do.”

“I know you-“

“-But you came into my life and taught me friendship and trust and when Dansby took me home that night after coffee...”

“Mallory, you don’t have to...”

“I wanted it to be you.”

Jessie felt her eyes well up and she quickly swallowed the lump in her throat. Mallory, on the other hand, came to her senses and realized what she was saying. She remembered that Dansby was back in the States waiting for her.

“But things are different now, I’m sorry,” Mal stated honestly- but softly.

“It’s okay, you’re right. I should have told you how I felt that night when I had the chance.”

“Maybe I should have too.”

Both girls laid in their bed and stared at the ceiling, wishing that they could hear each other’s heartbeats. Instead, Mallory heard Sonnet next door making a Tik-Tok with Rose, while Jessie could hear her dorm neighbors playing MarioKart.

It was 3:10am in France and 7:10pm in Los Angeles.

To be fair, Jessie didn’t expect an answer. She was fully prepared to leave a message.

“Well, I’ll let you go. I’m sure you’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Jessie told her.

“Will I see you when I get back?”

Jessie laughed at the question.

“Your Bruin family didn’t hesitate to buy some Victory Tour tickets. We’ll see you at the Rose Bowl!”

Mallory smiles when she heard this and let out a happy sigh.

“Good- I’ll see you soon, then.”

“See you, drink water.”

“Love you, Jessie.”

“I love you too.”


End file.
